Value Optimization for Project and Performance Management

In the traditional view of project management, if a project manager completed a project and had adhered to the triple constraints of time, cost, and performance, the project was considered a success. Today, in the eyes of the customer and the parent or sponsoring company, if a completed project did not deliver its anticipated value, it would be seen as a failure. Today's changing economic climate, marked by an increasingly competitive global environment, is driving project managers to become more business oriented. Projects must now be viewed from a strategic perspective within the context of a business or enterprise that needs to provide value to both the customer and the organization itself. As a result, project managers are now required to possess the skills to complete a project within certain specifications, and also know how to create and deliver value. Responding to the needs of today's project managers, Value-Driven Project Management begins by changing the paradigm of project management. Rather than judge the success of a project from the perspectives of time, budget, and quality, the authors demonstrate why success is only achieved when planned business values are met, including: Internal value Financial value Future value Customer-related value The authors also offer best practices that allow you and your organization to create additional value in efficiency, customer satisfaction, and enhanced products and services. Finally, the book helps you incorporate value into clearly defined business objectives and «sell» the value-driven process to executives. Throughout the book, helpful illustrations clarify complex concepts and processes. Assigning valuable resources to projects that don't provide some tangible form of value to the organization and to the client is poor management and poor decision-making. On the other hand, selecting and implementing projects that will deliver value and an acceptable return on investment is effective management and decision-making, but is very challenging, especially when a project may not provide its target value for years to come. With Value-Driven Project Management in hand, you'll discover the tools you need to ensure that projects deliver true value upon their completion.

Typically today's management tasks include project management, running workshops and working with consultancies – all complex activities, which require a multitude of skills and competencies. This book gives you a reference or cookbook-style access to the most important skills in a user-friendly format. Nicolai Andler presents in his book about 100 of such tools arranged according to task complexes. To make personal use of the tools as easy as possible, they are grouped into task-specific categories entitled Define Situation, Gather Information, Creativity, Goal Setting, Organisational Analysis, Technical Analysis, Strategic Analysis, Decision Making, Project Management, Checklists and Questions as well as Scenarios. Elements of information this books covers: – Relevant and appropriate for your needs – Up to date and as timely as possible – Comprehensive and sufficiently wide in scope, combined with a practical level of detail without being too academic – Reliable information from numerous tested sources and real implemented cases – Accessible and easy-to-use due to many different search options and self-help guides This book is a unique reference work and guide for those wanting to learn about or who are active in the fields of consulting, project management and problem solving in general. It presents cookbook-style access to most important skills, including a rating of each tool in terms of applicability, ease of use and effectiveness.

"This book is of the kind you always wanted but didn't think would or could ever exist: the universal field theory of problem solving." Tom Sommerlatte Typically today's tasks in management and consulting include project management, running workshops and strategic work – all complex activities, which require a multitude of skills and competencies. This standard work, which is also well accepted amongst consultants, gives you a reference or cookbook-style access to the most important tools, including a rating of each tool in terms of applicability, ease of use and effectiveness. In this considerably enlarged third edition, Nicolai Andler presents 152 of such tools, grouped into task-specific categories: Definition of a Situation/Problem – Information Gathering – Creativity – Information Consolidation – Goal Setting – Strategic, Technical and Organisational Analysis – Evaluation and Decision Making – Project Management. Checklists and Application Scenarios further enhance the use of this toolbox. Information provided by this book is: – comprehensive and sufficiently wide in scope, combined with a practical level of detail without being too academic – reliable and proven in numerous real implemented cases – easy to apply due to many different search options, checklists, application scenarios and guiding instructions. Written by a professional consultant, business analyst and business coach, this book is a unique reference work and guide for those wanting to learn about or who are active in the fields of consulting, project management and problem solving in general, both in business and engineering: business coaches and management trainers, workshop moderators, consultants and managers, project managers, lecturers and students.

An easy to implement, practical, and proven risk management methodology for project managers and decision makers Drawing from the author's work with several major and mega capital projects for Royal Dutch Shell, TransCanada Pipelines, TransAlta, Access Pipeline, MEG Energy, and SNC-Lavalin, Project Risk Management: Essential Methods for Project Teams and Decision Makers reveals how to implement a consistent application of risk methods, including probabilistic methods. It is based on proven training materials, models, and tools developed by the author to make risk management plans accessible and easily implemented. Written by an experienced risk management professional Reveals essential risk management methods for project teams and decision makers Packed with training materials, models, and tools for project management professionals Risk Management has been identified as one of the nine content areas for Project Management Professional (PMP®) certification. Yet, it remains an area that can get bogged down in the real world of project management. Practical and clearly written, Project Risk Management: Essential Methods for Project Teams and Decision Makers equips project managers and decision makers with a practical understanding of the basics of risk management as they apply to project management. (PMP and Project Management Professional are registered marks of the Project Management Institute, Inc.)

Dispels the confusion between project management success and project success, showing how project sponsors can govern their projects to succeed in delivering the strategic benefits originally envisaged  Project management success does not automatically lead to project success. Many large projects fail to live up to expectations, with between half and two-thirds of large projects either failing to deliver or delivering few strategic benefits. Traditional project management resources focus on delivering a project on time and on budget, yet they fail to supply top managers, many of whom find themselves in the role of accidental project sponsors, with guidance on how to govern their projects to succeed.  Project Benefit Realisation and Project Management: The 6Q Governance Approach  bridges the strategy to performance gap by providing boards, senior managers and project sponsors with the six critical questions necessary to diagnose the health of any project. Presenting a systematic framework developed from research cases of successful and unsuccessful projects in various types of organisations, this practical guide enables those in top management to determine if their strategy or policy is on track and to assess whether a project is likely to deliver the expected benefits. The text features real-world examples illustrating how concepts can be applied to different types of projects in engineering, construction, information technology, business transformation and many others. This must-have guide is designed to help top managers and other stakeholders:  Clarify the link between business outcomes, benefits, and strategy to evaluate where effort should be directed Assess how much behavioural change is required to effectively implement strategy and realise desired benefits Select a project sponsor committed to influencing key stakeholders to make necessary changes and intercede to resolve issues as they arise Establish how success will be measured before a project begins, to gauge sponsor commitment and ensure project goals are not changed to match whatever is achieved Ask if the right culture is in place to ensure all relevant information is being reported Determine teams’ ability to adapt and change plans in response to issues arising in the project Monitor if the project is on track to realising the benefits and have a process in place to cancel failing projects  Project Benefit Realisation and Project Management: The 6Q Governance Approach  is an indispensable volume for board members, project sponsors, project advisors and those in senior positions who find themselves in the role of accidental project sponsors.

It has often been said that 'to improve, one must be prepared to measure the improvement' and 'one must inspect what one expects.' The Kerzner Project Management Maturity Model has provided this tangible measure of maturity. The rest is up to a company to set the expectations and to inspect the results.–Bill Marshall, Nortel Global Project Process Standards (from the Foreword) Strategic planning for project management-a proven model for assessment and continuous improvement Harold Kerzner's landmark Project Management has long been the reference of choice for outstanding coverage of the basic principles and concepts of project management. Now, with the Project Management Maturity Model (PMMM) detailed in this new book, Kerzner has developed a unique, industry-validated tool for helping companies assess their progress in integrating project management throughout their organization. Strategic Planning for Project Management Using a Project Management Maturity Model begins by examining the principles of strategic planning and how they relate to project management. The second part of the book introduces the PMMM, detailing the five different levels of development for achieving maturity, along with benchmarking instruments for measuring an organization's progress along the maturity curve. These assessment tools can easily be customized to suit individual companies-a particularly valuable feature of the model. Offering vital guidance for making project management a strategic tool for competitive advantage, this book helps managers, engineers, project team members, business consultants, and others build a powerful foundation for company improvement and excellence.

No matter what industry your company competes in, you need to have a firm understanding of how to create a direct link between shareholder value and critical business processes in order to improve performance and achieve long-term value. Performance Dashboards and Analysis for Value Creation contains the information and expertise you need to do just this—and much more.

The increase in project outsourcing has forced traditional programmers to take on the role of project managers and quickly learn how to manage software projects The author discusses all of the essentials in widely accepted project management methodology, from managing programmers to assessing and eliminating risk The book covers the iterative development model, using Microsoft Project 2003, as well as a variety of methodologies including eXtreme, open source, SQA testing, software life cycle management, and more The companion Web site contains tools, case studies and other resources to help even novices get up and running

This construction client's manual is written in the form of a list of activities. It supports owners in the role of client by helping them make choices during the project development process. This increases control over cost, quality and duration at each stage. Activities within each main stage of the project development (preparation stage; procurement; design; preparation for construction; construction itself; handover; implementation) are divided into phases, each requiring separate decision-making. The phase begins with a list of direct previous decisions and continues with a list of executors, the goal of the present phase and a list of activities to be performed. And each phase ends with a list of expected results and a list of activities that these results release for action in the next phase. The sequence of these seven stages can be altered to help building owners manage risk by choosing and combining the timing of these stages. The tasks involved in project preparation, described in the first chapter are for example, often left by the owner for the designers to solve – or sometimes even the contractors. The decisions relating to the choice of procurement schemes, described in the second chapter, can be made either at the preparation stage of project development, as part of the prioritisation of aims, or at the time of choosing the designer, or at the stage of choosing construction contractors. Manual of Construction Project Management – for owners & clients is for prospective owners who either operate as clients themselves, or who use the services of professional construction management companies. The aim is to help both owners and their construction partners understand what to expect from each other. The manual describes activities at the level of detail required to choose the management task or method to make the decision. It is not bound to regulations of any specific country and a detailed glossary makes it an indispensable worldwide reference.

Harold Kerzner’s essential strategies on measuring project management performance With the growth of complex projects, stakeholder involvement, and advancements in visual-based technology, metrics and KPIs (key performance indicators) are key factors in evaluating project performance. Dashboard reporting systems provide accessible project performance data, and sharing this vital data in a concise and consistent manner is a key communication responsibility of all project managers. This third edition of Kerzner's groundbreaking work, Project Management Metrics, KPIs, and Dashboards: A Guide to Measuring and Monitoring Project Performance, helps functional managers gain a thorough grasp of what metrics and KPIs are and how to use them. Plus, this edition includes new sections on processing dashboard information, portfolio management PMO and metrics, and BI tool flexibility. • Offers comprehensive coverage of the different dashboard types, design issues, and applications Provides full-color dashboards from some of the most successful project management companies, including IBM, Microsoft, and others Aligns with PMI’s PMBOK® Guide and stresses value-driven project management PPT decks are available by chapter and a test bank will be available for use in seminar presentations and courses Get ready to bolster your awareness of what good metrics management really entails today—and be armed with the knowledge to measure performance more effectively.